Media Day Quick Hits

Here's some quotes from the some of the 2010 Owls as they spoke to an overflow crowd of local media on 2010 Rice Football Media Day

Coach David Bailiff

It is a wonderful time of the year. I went out to the Texans practice the other day and you hear the noise of football and I got goose bumps on my arm hearing the whistles and the pads poppin¹ and I can¹t wait for our practice tonight.

We have a chance to be a much improved football team. We have matured over the last season and we¹re bigger, faster, and stronger. We expect to win and we expect to go to a bowl game. We expect these young men to come out and compete every snap and play a great brand of football. We always keep our expectations high and I think we¹ll be a real good football team and surprise some people.

We¹ve got great competition all over the field on the offensive side of the football and on the defensive side of the football and even special teams.

Competition just makes you improve and makes you improve fast.

We¹ve created a culture where we expect to win and play with great passion for four quarters and I think these young men are ready to do that.

David Beatty

I¹m really excited about this season with the football team that we have.

Offensively, our strength staff did an unbelievable job with these guys. You can just their muscles popping out of their shirts.

Personally, its great to be back at Rice and get started. It¹s a great place and it is very near and dear to my heart. Working for Coach Bailiff is a dream come true and there is not a better one in the business to work for, I promise you that and we¹re looking forward to some great things.

We¹ve got some great some great talent and we are looking forward to getting the ball into guy¹s hands that could do some things with it. We think we got some systems in place to be able to do that.

Chuck Driesbach

Depth is so important on both sides of the ball, particularly defense with as many plays as the offenses are trying to run against us right now we feel like we got more depth than we¹ve ever had. I remember Coach Bailiff had a discussion one time and we were talking about depth and how important it is.

You know if Colonel Travis and Davy Crockett had a little bit of depth they may have won that ballgame ­ at the Alamo. We¹ve got more experience and we are very excited about the progress we¹ve made along those lines.

Sam McGuffie

I just try to play as hard as I can, practice as hard as I can, and do everything as hard as I can. Hopefully, I can do that on the field.

On what he brings to Rice Football:

I just want to win. At Michigan, we want two games and for the first time in my life I felt there was nothing I could do, and I don¹t want that to happen again. I want to win games.

On the experience of sitting out last season after transferring:

I¹ve never had to sit out in my whole life and being a competitor you never want to sit out. Sitting out showed how important football was to me. I did everything full speed and didn¹t take any plays off. It just made me realize how much I love football and how humbling it is to sit back and watch everybody else go out there, while I was sitting on the sidelines.

Taylor Cook

On what he did in the spring in preparing for 2010:

Just work hard and try to get bigger, stronger, faster, and smarterŠ study in the film room and study the playbook and just be the best I can be to give myself a chance.

On why he transferred to Rice:

Number one, academics for sure as that was key to my parents. It is a little bit closer to home and it is a football program that is on the way up. I figured I could come here and help.

Has Rice met his expectations?

It¹s been nothing, but good. The coaches have been great and the players have been great and now its time to play football.

Nick Fanuzzi

I¹m looking forward to the season and I¹m ready to get two-a-days underway and ready to get the season started. I think the team is really excited and ready to get this thing going.

On suffering through last season with injuries and adversity:

It was tough. A lot of our starters and players were hurt throughout the year. It seemed as one guy was getting better another guy was getting hurt and it wasn¹t just me, it was guys across the board and it did take toll on us. We¹ve overcome that and we¹ve used that as a drive for this season.

Having everybody back and having more experience back, plus having guys like Sam (McGuffie) coming in we just have a lot of excitement.

On his experience:

Having a year of experience under my belt is huge. The first couple games will not be anything new. Playing teams like, Texas, Baylor, and Northwestern are going to be a challenge for us, but I think it is a challenge our team is ready to accept and take on. That is what we are going to do in two-a-days is get ready for those teams and just do we¹ve been doing all summer long ­ working our butts off and get ready for the season to start.

On Rice offensive potential for 2010:

I think there is a lot of talent right here coming into this season. Sam

(McGuffie) is going to be huge in opening up the offense in the run game as well as the passing game. I know our o-line had a lot of first year starters last year and they are coming back with more experience.With defense we have Travis Bradshaw and Scott Solomon who are playmakers. I¹m just all-around excited, offensively and defensively.

OT Tyler Parish tried to show some of what he learned as an intern at Ch. 39 in Houston this summer, grabbing the microphone and taking a stab at conducting an interview or two

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3 Comments

So those uniform changes I asked about did happen. Jerseys no longer have names on the back (mistake, in my opinion) and the pants are new/different, no longer having the stripe down the side. What were the impetuses behind these changes?

Also, since the Chronicle appears to be cutting its Rice coverage even further and we no longer have MK, can you provide the fan base with practice notes and photo galleries? The starved fan base would much appreciate it.

Thanks.

Talon

Let's answer in reverse order: Photo galleries have been a part of our football camp coverage for the past four years, so nothing will change in that regard, and at the same time we are adding more and more video. The first gallery did not go up until this afternoon, in large part because of all the materials that had to be processed and edited from Saturday.

As for practice notes, we will pass along nuggets and other items when available. As part of the additional video efforts, we hope to soon be producing features or other quick hit type items to further promote our student-athletes. The core mission of this office is to utilze all availble media to familiarize our fans, and potential fans with the amazing men and women who compete for Rice.

As to the fashion report, the team expressed a desire to find a more flexible fabric for their game pants. The model they wore the last three years was very stiff and uncomfortable. The desired fabric was only available in white, thus the demise of the stripes. The decision regarding names on jerseys was, and will remain Coach Bailiff's decision. He informed the team of his decision in the spring and there has been no feedback from the members of the team to revist the issue. Their focus has been on other things, as evidenced by the results of their summer conditioning efforts.